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Steven Paul Jobs, the co-founder and chairman of Apple,died Wednesday at the age of 56.

Born in San Francisco in 1955, Jobs grew up near Cupertino, Calif. After attending Reed College in Portland for one semester (and auditing classes for free for several more), Jobs took a job at Atari, designing circuit boards. In 1976, Jobs co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak.

The two young men started out with a few thousand dollars in cash and a vision of changing the world. Over the course of the past 35 years, the company and Jobs have gone on to change the world, the personal computing industry, the music and film industries and the mobile industry as we know.

Apple released its first mass-market product, the Apple II in 1976. The Apple II helped ignite what would become known as “the personal computer revolution” and thrust the charismatic Jobs into the spotlight. By the time IBM released its first PC in 1981 and Commodore released the Commodore 64 in 1982, Apple was already hard at work on the product that would cement Apple’s place in computing history, the Macintosh.

Brazenly introduced to the world in 1984 via a Super Bowl ad directed by Ridley Scott, the Macintosh helped set the standard for personal computing paradigms for the next decade.

Pixar, NeXT and Beyond

Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985 over disagreements concerning vision, style and attitude. At the time, Jobs was written off by many in the business and industry press as a flash in the pan. It was Wozniak, not Jobs, they said, that was the real innovator at Apple.

In the decade that followed, Jobs was out of the limelight. Bill Gates became the face of the industry and the tech story of the 1990s was the rise of Microsoft. It was Microsoft, not Apple, that would topple IBM.

After leaving Apple in 1985, Jobs and some of his Apple founded NeXT with a cadre of Apple alumni. NeXT was well-financed and its software and hardware were top notch. Still, the products failed to make an impact on the industry.

Jobs’s real success in the first half of the 1990s wasn’t in the computer industry, but in the film industry. Pixar, a small animation studio Jobs acquired in 1986, went from obscurity to industry game-changer after the release of 1995′s Toy Story. It was Pixar, not Apple — and not NeXT — that made Jobs a very rich man.

In late 1996, Jobs approached Apple to discuss his former company acquiring NeXT. Apple needed an operating system, NeXT had one, NeXTSTEP.

Within a few months of rejoining Apple, Jobs took over as interim CEO. It was at this point that the modern Jobs legacy began to take shape.

From 1997 until August 2011, Jobs was Apple’s CEO, presiding over what can only be described as thegreatest second and third acts in business history. Under his tutelage as CEO, Apple not only returned from the brink of bankruptcy to profitability, but products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad have single-handedly changed the consumer electronics and personal computing landscape.

In August 2004, Jobs revealed that he had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas. Jobs took a one month leave of absence to recover from surgery and returned to work in September 2004.

For the next seven years, Jobs would dodge rumors about his health. In June 2008, Jobs’s gaunt appearance at WWDC raised questions about his health. In January 2009, Jobs took a six-month leave of absence from Apple, to address “a hormone deficiency.” It was later revealed that Jobs had a liver transplant in April 2009. He returned to work in June 2009.

Jobs would continue to serve as Apple’s CEO until January 2011, when he took a medical leave of absence “to focus on his health.”

Steve Jobs introduces the Macintosh to the world. Computing would never be the same.

1984 Apple’s Macintosh Commercial

Ridley Scott’s famous “1984” commercial for the original Macintosh continues to find imitators, even today. In 2011, Motorola attempted to spoof the classic ad in a promotional spot for its Xoom tablet.

Steve Jobs and Microsoft at Macworld Boston 1997

When Bill Gates appeared on-screen at Macworld Boston in 1997, the audience reacted with boos and hisses. Still, the decision to partner with Microsoft and have Microsoft commit to producing software for the Macintosh was one of the most shrewd — and likely one of the most intelligent — decisions that Jobs made upon his return to Apple.

Although many incorrectly believe that Microsoft “bought” Apple in 1997, the reality is, without Microsoft’s investment and commitment to developing Macintosh software, the company may have had a more difficult time getting its next line of products to the market.

The First iMac Introduction

The iMac helped set the standard for the modern Apple even as we know it today. Designed by Jonathan Ive, the iMac was sleek, modern and affordable. This was not the Macintosh of the early to mid 1990s, it was something new.

With the iMac, Apple became cool. We can vividly remember looking at the egg-shaped all-in-one design with the hockey puck mouse and famous lack of a floppy drive and being transfixed. The iMac marked the beginning of Apple 2.0.

The First iPod Keynote (2001)

Nearly 10 years ago, Apple debuted the iPod. Famously ridiculed and dismissed by Slashdot, it would be several years before the device would become iconic, and in the process, change Apple fundamentally as a company.

The premise behind the iPod was simple: 1,000 songs in your pocket. Its the execution that set the device apart from everyone else.

In 2003, Apple flipped the switch again, with the launch of the iTunes Music Store. In a post-Napster industry, most were skeptical that iTunes could drive music sales. Eight years later, iTunes is the number one music retailer by a large margin.

Ten years on, the iPod is getting long in the tooth, but it still remains the leader in its product category.

Steve Jobs presents the iTunes Phone

After the iPod started to achieve massive success in 2003 and 2004, the rumors of an iPod phone started to swirl.

The first attempt to bring a product like that to the market was in the form of Motorola’s Rokr. The Rokr tried to capitalize on the success of the Razr, while also adding compatibility with iTunes.

Still, the device was a dud. You can see Steve Jobs’s frustration with the device in this demonstration. The Rokr was an example that only Apple could build an Apple product.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Steve Jobs’s commencement speech at Stanford University in 2006 is one of our favorite Jobs moments. It’s riveting, inspirational and every bit as good as any Apple product keynote.

Introducing the new iPhone PART 1

All hail the Jesus Phone. The iPhone changed the mobile industry. Full stop. The mobile world and ecosystem that we know today would not exist in the same way that it does now without the iPhone.

The iPhone also changed Apple as a company and helped further cement Jobs’s place in history.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together: Part 1

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are two of the most powerful and influential men of our times. Seeing them together at D5, just ahead of the iPhone’s U.S. launch, was amazing.

Apple iPad: Steve Jobs Keynote Jan. 27 2010 Part 1

In January 2010, Apple changed the game again with the iPad. Like the iPod and iPhone, the critics dismissed it and predicted its failure. Its success has outpaced nearly every other technology product launch in history and is having a seismic impact on education, publishing, media consumption and computing in general.

The PC era might not be over, but I’m willing to bet that the computer I use every day in 10 years will have a lot more in common with the iPad than the MacBook Pro.

According to a report from MacRumors, they have “received word” that Apple has now begun shipping the new display to its retail stores and authorized resellers. While we’re still yet to hear an official release date, we’d expect them to be available for purchase shortly.

To those of you who who have chosen to order online, there’s currently no news regarding shipping — and the Apple online store is still advertising a 2-3 week wait — but again, expect this to change imminently and keep an eye on your order status.

The new 27-inch Thunderbolt Display is the first to boast Intel’s new high-speed Thunderbolt technology, which is capable of transferring data through two channels at an impressive 10Gbps. That’s 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and 12 times faster than FireWire 800.

In addition to Thunderbolt technology, the display packs all the same features that were present with its predecessor, including a high-resolution 2560 x 1440 display, a FaceTime HD camera, a Gigabyte Ethernet port, and a MagSafe charger for your notebook.

The new display is also the same price as its predecessor at $999, so if you choose to purchase one from the Apple online store be warned: the old 27-inch Cinema Display is also still available, so make sure you order the newer model.

If you spot the new display in your local store, or your order starts shipping, let us know by leaving us a comment, or catch me on Twitter via @killianbell.

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Apple has amended and expanded its intellectual property right complaint against Samsung to include more products and more patents. In April, Apple filed suit against the Korean giant, alleging that products like the Galaxy S series of smartphones and the original Galaxy Tab copied the look and feel of Apple products, violating the Cupertino company’s …

Based on its history, you probably wouldn’t expect to see Windows Phone take off like a rocket. But apparently that’s what it’s going to do. Research out of Gartner and IDC says that Mango may grab a

whopping 20 percent of the market by 2015, with the help of hardware partners like HTC and a little extra effort in the marketing department.

Thus far, Windows Phone hasn’t had the best reception. In some ways this is deserved, as many of the big features on the Windows OS were rolled out much later than they were on rival platforms. Even the carriers seemed to discredit WP7 in store — a trend Microsoft was definitely not cool with.

Windows Phone head of marketing Achim Berg said yesterday that IDC and Gartner’s 20 percent market share forecasts are actually conservative (shocker!), and he expects even greater success out of the platform. And the road to such success starts in Europe, with the launch of the HTC Radar and Titan on October 1. Microsoft has hired “hundreds of salesman” to help demonstrate the power of its newly refreshed platform, and plans to target the ladies and the youngsters to nab that 20 percent share.

If you passed elementary math, you know there’s only so much market share to go around. If Windows Phone goes from a 4.3 percent share to control 20 percent of the market, that means another platforms growth is sure to slow. According to Gartner, Apple’s iOS will be the one to do so, growing from a 16 percent market share in 2010 to just 17 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, Android is poised to maintain control with growth from a 23 percent share in 2010 to a massive 49 percent in 2015, reports Bloomberg.

What will make or break windows will be its app selection. HP’s decision to halt production of webOS devices will likely help with that, as a fresh batch of developers have just been abandoned. Still it’s got a long way to go to match the 425,000+ App Store apps that made the iPhone what it is today.

Past that, hardware is also key here. Microsoft will have the support of big name hardware vendors like HTC and Nokia, along with Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE. That same divide and conquer strategy has obviously worked splendidly for Android, and with the promise we’re seeing out of Mango, WinPho is sure to do the same. Since iOS appears on only one phone — an incredibly popular phone, but one nontheless — it’s at a significant disadvantage going forward.

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Hey, what do you know! It’s been just shy of two weeks since Apple’s last Beta release of iOS 5, and just like clockwork, they’re back with another serving.

You guys all know the drill at this point: as usual, this Beta release is for developers (and“developers”) only — but on the upside, that Beta version number probably won’t climb too much higher before this thing gets released to everyone.

Plus: at this point, the releases seem to be boiling down to bug fixes and tiny tweaks. If you’ve managed to hold out this long, you’re probably not going to miss too much that you wouldn’t have seen in the first 6.

Alas, Apple doesnt really release a “change log” pointing to all the fun little gems (other sites may post what they call Apple’s “change log”, but these are just Apple’s developer-oriented API notes/tweaks. These notes are almost identical from Beta to Beta, and have little to do with user-facing changes.) With that said, we’ll keep an eye out for big, notable changes and update this post as we come across them — be sure to let us know down in the comments if you spot any!

Like the past two releases, Beta 7 can be downloaded as a slim update over-the-air, or as a full image through the Apple developer portal.